Chapter 4 - the woman who came after midnight)
Lydia Carrington arrived at Robert's house at four that afternoon.
She came because Robert called and told her he had questions.
He did not tell her about Emma's memory.
Lydia was forty-one, elegant and composed, with dark hair cut just above her shoulders. She and Grace had studied together at the University of Georgia and later founded a small historical preservation charity.
Robert had known her for nearly twenty years.
Grace trusted her.
Or Robert had believed she did.
Lydia entered carrying another bouquet.
Gardenias.
Emma saw them and immediately moved behind Sophia.
Robert noticed.
So did Lydia.
"Is she all right?"
"She's had a difficult few days."
Lydia's expression softened.
"Of course."
She placed the flowers on a side table.
Robert invited her into the sitting room.
"Did you see Grace the night before she died?"
Lydia froze for less than a second.
"Yes."
"What time?"
"Around eight."
"When did you leave?"
"Maybe nine."
Emma stared at her.
Robert continued.
"Did you return later?"
"No."
The answer came too quickly.
Robert leaned back.
"You're sure?"
"Of course I'm sure."
Sophia sat quietly beside Emma.
Lydia looked at them.
"Why are you asking?"
"Grace believed someone searched her house."
Lydia's face changed.
"She told you that?"
"No."
Robert watched carefully.
"She recorded it."
Lydia stopped moving.
That was the first real reaction.
Her fingers tightened around her handbag.
"Recorded?"
Robert said nothing.
Lydia stood.
"I think this is inappropriate."
"My daughter is dead."
"And you think I had something to do with it?"
"I asked whether you returned to the house."
"No."
Emma whispered.
"Yes, you did."
Everyone turned.
Lydia stared at the nine-year-old girl.
Emma's voice shook.
"I saw you."
Lydia looked toward Robert.
"She is grieving."
"I smelled your flowers."
Lydia's face drained.
Sophia reached for Emma's hand.
Robert stood.
"Tell me what happened."
Lydia looked toward the windows.
Then toward the door.
Finally she sat again.
"I didn't hurt Grace."
"That wasn't the question."
Lydia covered her face for several seconds.
When she looked up, tears had appeared.
"I went back."
Robert waited.
"Why?"
"Grace called me."
"What time?"
"A little after midnight."
Emma's memory had been correct.
Lydia explained that Grace had sounded terrified.
She asked Lydia to come without telling Ethan.
When Lydia arrived, the side door was unlocked.
Grace was waiting in the study.
She showed Lydia documents.
Bank records.
Corporate registrations.
Copies of insurance policies.
Grace told Lydia she believed Ethan had been hiding assets.
Then she said something worse.
Someone had contacted her anonymously.
The message warned her to stop investigating.
Robert leaned forward.
"What did the message say?"
Lydia hesitated.
"Grace saved it."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Was Ethan home?"
"Upstairs."
"Did he know you were there?"
"I don't think so."
Robert remembered Grace's recording.
"What happened next?"
Lydia looked at Sophia.
"Your mother asked me to take a folder."
Sophia's eyes widened.
"What folder?"
"I never opened it."
Robert's voice hardened.
"Where is it?"
Lydia's hands began to shake.
"Someone stole it."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
Robert stood.
"You're lying."
"I'm not."
"You lied about returning to the house."
"Because I was scared."
"Of Ethan?"
Lydia shook her head.
"Of whoever called me the next morning."
Silence.
Robert stared at her.
"Someone called you?"
"At seven seventeen."
"What did they say?"
Lydia swallowed.
"They knew I had been at Grace's house."
"What else?"
"They told me to return what Grace gave me."
Sophia whispered.
"Did you?"
"I couldn't. It was already gone."
Lydia explained that when she returned home after visiting Grace, the folder had been inside her handbag.
The next morning it was missing.
There were no signs of forced entry.
Only three people had access to her house.
Lydia.
Her housekeeper.
And her brother.
Robert knew her brother.
Charles Carrington.
A successful attorney whose firm handled corporate work for many wealthy Savannah families.
Including Ethan Cole.
Martin Shaw, who had been quietly listening from the doorway, suddenly spoke.
"Charles represents Ethan?"
Lydia nodded.
"Since before Ethan married Grace."
Martin's expression darkened.
"Why didn't you tell police?"
"Tell them what? That my friend gave me papers I never read and they disappeared?"
"Yes."
Lydia looked down.
"I was afraid."
Robert was losing patience.
"Grace was afraid too."
Lydia flinched.
Robert stepped closer.
"My daughter is in the ground. Her husband abandoned her children at the cemetery. If you know something else, now is the time."
Lydia began crying.
"There is something."
Sophia sat straighter.
Lydia wiped her face.
"Grace asked me a strange question that night."
"What?"
"She asked whether a person could change somebody's medication without leaving obvious evidence."
Robert went still.
Grace had officially died from complications related to an undiagnosed heart rhythm disorder.
Medication had never been considered suspicious.
Lydia continued.
"I told her I didn't know."
"Why did she ask?"
"She wouldn't say."
Robert's chest tightened.
"Did she mention Ethan?"
"No."
"Vanessa?"
"No."
"Charles?"
Lydia looked at him.
Then slowly shook her head.
But Robert had seen something.
A hesitation.
A fraction too long.
"You thought of someone."
Lydia stood.
"I should leave."
Robert blocked her path.
"Who?"
Lydia whispered.
"You need to understand something. Ethan is selfish. He is cruel. He cheated on Grace. He hid money. But Grace told me she wasn't sure Ethan was the person she feared most."
Robert felt the room narrowing around him.
"Who was?"
Lydia looked toward the girls.
Then back at Robert.
"She said the person watching her had known the Whitmore family longer than Ethan had."
Robert's anger disappeared.
May you like
Because only a handful of people fit that description.
And one of them had been inside Grace's life since she was a child.
